Glass 
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DECLARATION 



COUNTY OF ESSES. 



IN TKE 



COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS 

BY ITS 

DELEGATES, 

ASSEMBLED IN CONVENTION 

AT 

IPSWICH, 

ON TUESDAY, THE 2 1 St OF JULY, l8l2, 



SALEM ; 

PP.TNTED BY THOMAS C, CUSHIN^. 



ESSEX COUNTY CONVENTION AT IPSWICH, 

THE 21st OF JULY, 1812, 
PRESENT THE FOLLOWING DELEGATES : 



Salem. 

Jacob Ashton, Efq. 
Nathaniel Bowditch, 
E Hersey Derby, 
Robert Emery, 
Samuel Endicott, 
Ichabod Nichols, 

WlLLLAM ORNE, 

John Osgood, 
Joseph Peabody, 
Hon. Benjamin Peirce, 
John Pickering, Efq. 
Hon Samuel Putnam, 

LEVERETTS ALTON ST ALL,Efq. 

Beverly. 
Moses Brown, Efq. 
Hon. Joshua Fisher, 
Capt. Hugh Hill, 
Maj. Billy Porter, 
Robert Rantoul, Efq. 

Danvers. 
Jonathan Ingersoll, Efq. 
Dr. Andrew Nichols, 
Joseph Osborn, 
Nathaniel Putnam. 

Lynn field, 
John Upton, jun. 

Bradford. 
James Kimball, Efq. 
Daniel Stickney. 

Haverhill.* 
Hon- Israel Bartlett, 
Enoch Bradley, 
John Johnston, jun. 

Salisbury.* 
Samuel Wigglesworte. 

Hamilton. 

FaANCTS ®U4R£Er:. ■ 

Topsfi'eLd; 
. Hon, Neh. Cleavel/lnd. 



Rowley. 
Parker Cleafeland, Efq. 
Moody Spafford, Efq. 

Newburyport. 
William Bartlett, Efq. 
William Chase, 
Thomas M. Clark, Efq. 
William Farris, 
Jonathan Gage, Efq. 
Col. John Greenleaf, 
Hon. Jeremiah Nelson* 
Samuel Newman, 
Isaac Stone. 

Newbury. 
Thomas Carter, 
Daniel Emery, 
Silas Little, Efq. 
Abraham Wheelwright'. 

Ipswich. 
Jonathan Cogswell^ Efq. 
Capt. Joseph Farley, 
Hon. John Heard, 
Capt. Ammi R. Smith. 

Manchester. 
William Tuck, Efq. 

Gloucester. 
William Dane, 
Robert Elwell %d, 
John Mason, 
Hon. Lonson Nash, 
Daniel Rogers. 

Wenham. 
Hon. T imothy Pickering. 

Boxford. 
Deacon Parker Spafford, 

MlDDLETON.* 
ELIAS WlLKlNS. 

Lynn.* 
Fred'k Breed, Efq. 
Ephraim Sweetser. 



These To.vn. did not cbo'o^ Delegates in their corporate 



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THE Delegates made choice of the Hon. TIMOTHY PICKERING, 
Esquire, as President, and Lonson Nash, Esq. as Secretary, 
of the Convention. A Prayer well adapted to the occasion and 
to the calamitous state of the Country, was then addressed to 
the Supreme Ruler of the World, by the Rev. Dr. Dana. 
A general view was taken of the important business for the con- 
sideration of which the Convention had been proposed ; and a 
Committee was chosen to prepare and report a draught of 
Resolutions, or a Declaration, expressive of the sentiments 
which the measures of our National Government, and especially 
their DECLARATION of WAR, appeared to have excited in 
the minds of the People of this County ; and then the Convention 
adjourned to the afternoon. At the adjourned meeting-, the 
Committee made a Report ; which^ having been read, considered, 
discussed and amended, was unanimously agreed to, and adopted 
as the act of this Convention, as hereto subjoined, and ordered 
to be published. 

The Convention then made choice of TWENTY DELEGATES to 
represent this County in a Convention of Delegates from the seve- 
ral Counties in this Commonwealth, to be convened at BOSTON* 



UR Country grievoufly oppreffed by prohibitions of 



trade, under the name of embargo, and by other ruin- 
ous commercial reftri&ions, which for many years have been 
wantonly impofed by the government of the United States ; 
and its meafure of iniquity being now filled up by a declara- 
tion of war againft Great-Britain j a war impolitic, unnecef- 
fary and unjuft ; and by which all our former fufFerings will 
be aggravated; while our liberty and independence are put 
in jeopardy, by the confequent connections with France ; 
whofe government under every form ftamped with defpo- 
tifm and perfidy, is now in the blood-ftained hands of * 



DECLARATION. 




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monfter whole falfehood, irijuftice, cruelty, ambition an* 
tyranny have not in any period of the world been furpafled : 
In this awful Qate of things it is the ferious and urgent duty, 
as well as the perfecl right of the Freemen of MafTachufetts, 
to confute together, and to adopt the moft fuitable means of 
deliverance from the evils already felt, and the greater now 
impending, and which can be averted and removed only by 
the fpirit and firmnefs of the people themfelves. This duty has 
become the more preffing and imperious by the aaual condition 
of the government of this Common wealth,of which one branch 
(the Senate) is in the hands of ufurpers devoted to the ini- 
quitous fyftem of the National Government ; ufurpers who 
obtained their feats by means of an unjuft and unconftitu- 
tional law of the laft year's legiflature ; by which perma- 
nence in ill-gotten and abufed power was intended to be fe- 
cured in that branch, in defiance of the voice of the people 
demanding reforms of the abufes and evils devifed and per- 
petrated by that legiflature — Thefe ufurpers have manifeft- 
ed a determination to deprive this Commonwealth of their 
voice in the election of a Prefident of the United States, by 
refufing to concur in any one of the various fair modes of 
election tendered to them by the Houfe of Reprefentatives.— 
They have alfo impeded the exprefiion of the public opinion 
by our prefent legiflature : and hence the large and patriotic 
majority of the Houfe of Reprefentatives have addreffed the 
People, and folemnly called on them to affemble in town- 
meetings and county conventions, to exprefs, at this momen- 
tous crifis, their fentiments on public affairs, and efpecially 
their difapprobation of the War. This we will do ; and, 
as they advife, " without fear unreftrained by any confe- 
derations but thofe of jufiice and truth. 



C 5 3 



cc When a great people find themfelves opprefTed by die 
fneafures of their government ; when their rights are neg- 
lected, their interefts overlooked, their opinions difregard- 
ed, and their refpectfui petitions received with iupercilious 
contempt ; it is impoffible for them to fubmit in filence." 
Under thefe circumftances, to repeat fuch petitions would 
be unworthy of the fpirit and dignity of freemen. We 
will not incur this reproach. The remedy is in the Peo- 
ple's own hands. Men deaf to the voice of reafon and of 
juftice muft be deprived of power. The People, in exer- 
cifing the right of election, muft fubftitute perfons of a 
different character. " They who rule over men, muft be 
juft, ruling in the fear of God." Without fuch ralers 
Havery and ruin await us. 

In every community, it is but a fmall number of men, 
and chiefly thofe who obtain offices, who can be benefited 
by the abufe of pow T er : while the great body of the People, 
whatever part they take, are common fuflerers. It is there- 
fore as impoffible for the People knowingly to prefer fuch a- 
bufers of power to honeft men, as it is for them to prefer 
oppreffion and fuffering to freedom and happinefs. But 
xnifled by plaufible but falfe profeffions of zeal for liberty 
and the public good, the people not unfrequently choofe 
fuch deceivers for their rulers. Hence it is efTential, in a 
free government, that the characters of men in power mould 
be examined and plainly defcribed. Thofe who take the 
lead, and give form and effect to abufes, are always few in 
number ; but fupported by a greater number alike unprin- 
cipled, and a ftill greater of uninformed and undifcerning 
men, they ate enabled to trample on the ccnftitution, to vi- 
olate the Peopled rights, and to load them with oppiefUcns, 



t « 3 



As men, like trees, are known by the fruits they bear, 
nothing would be more ufeful, at this time, than a review 
and difplay of the principal acts and proceedings of the men 
^■ho for nearly the laft twelve years have governed the 
United States. Such a review would fliow, that they are 
the chief authors of our fufferings, and of the ruin now 
fcnpending. 

We have the confeuion of Mr. Jefferson himfelf, when 
in an evil hour he gained the Prefident's chair, that the U. 
States were " in the full tide of fuccefsful experiment," and 
that the government — the federal government — " had fo far 
kept us free and firm. And what has changed the fcene : 
What has produced years of filtering, and at length the 
greateft of human calamities, War ? The fatal departure 
from thofe principles of adminiSering our government which 
had brought in that full tide of profperity and kept us free 
and firm. Our rulers, by their long manifeft partialities to- 
wards France, and enmity and ill-offices towards her princi- 
pal adverfary, and now by declaring war againft Great-Bri= 
tain, have given proofs of their defire to contribute to her 
downfall ; tho' with the moral certainty, in that event, of 
our own ruin — of the lofs of our independence as a nation, 
snd of our individual liberties. The government of a free 
people fo conducting deferves their fevereft reproach. — Thus 
viewing the proceedings of our rulers, and in connection 
therewith, the character and conduct of the rulers of France s 
we make the following further declaration of our opinions 
and feelings. 

i. That moft of the great political evils which for a 
feries of years have afflicted our country, are to be afcribed 
to the intrigues and perfidy of the French government, un- 
der all its forms, monarchical, republican and imperial— ia 



t 7 J 



Concert with many ambitious and fome unprincipled and 
corrupt men among our own citizens, over whom that go- 
vernment acquired a dangerous and pernicious influence. 

2. That this French influence, at one period during our 
revolutionary war, was fo predominant as to procure an 
inftruction from Congrefs to our minifters who were empow- 
ered to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great-Britain, 
which put in jeopardy the fifheries> fo highly important to 
MaiTachufetts— the sxtsnfion of our territory to the Mifjippi, and 
the free navigation of that river ,and expofed us to a continuance of 
that diftreffing war, by poftponing the acknowledgment of our 
independence (an indifpenfable condition of peace) fo 
long as might fuit the convenience and the ambitious 
views of France- — By that inftruction, by which our 
minifters were dishonoured and our country degraded, 
they were placed at the difcretion of the minifters of France ; 
being required " to undertake nothing in the negotiations 
" for peace or truce without their concurrence ; and ulti- 
" mately to govern themfelves by their advice and opinion. 53 
This humiliating and dangerous inftruclion our minifters had 
the dignity, Srmnefs and patriotifm to lay afide ; and not on= 
ly without, but in oppofition to the infidious advice and opi- 
nion of the French minifters, negotiated fuch a treaty with 
Great-Britain, as the honor and interefts of the U, States 
required. For which bold and independent conduct, the 
French party in Congrefs, with Mr, Madison a principal 
among thenh attempted to pafs a vote of cenfure. 

3. That to the intrigues of France are to be afcribed all 
the difficulties and delays we encountered in our attempts, in 
1797 and 1798, to run the boundary lines between the U. 
States and the Floridas, purfuant to our treaty with Spain ; 
aad the corrupt attempts, by bribery, to detach the State of 



C s ] 

Kentuckey from the Union ; for France, it appears, h-?c 
then contemplated the recovery of Louifiana from Spain.--, 
To the fame intrigues is alfo to be attributed the obftru&ion, 
.in 1802, to the free navigation of the Miffifippi and to our 
right of depofit of our merchandizes at New-Orleans : for 
though Spain was then in pojefton, (he was no longer the 
owner of Louifiana, and could have no poffible motive to 
violate her own good faith and injure the United States s 
fhe having before that time (in October 1800) a&ually re- 
conveyed Louifiana to France. 

4. That to the fame intrigues of France and her influ* 
ence with her American party, the party which Washington 
denounced as the curfe of their country, is to be afcribed the 
vehement and obftinate oppofition encountered by that pa- 
triot Prefident, in his endeavors to maintain an impartial 
neutrality, and to preferve the peace of the United States s 
France and her partifans ufing every means in their power 
to prevent a fettlement, by treaty, of the differences then ex- 
iting between the United States and Great-Britain ; inftead 
of which, they urged commercial reftrictions and war. 

5. That if the prefervation of the rights, property and 
Interefts of the United States were the real inducement t© 
the meafures of our rulers, in their commercial prohibitions 4 
and reftriclions, no intrigues, mifreprefentations and decep- 
tions would be required or prafHfed in propofing and re- 
commending them. That the ftatement made to Congrefs, 
by Mr. Jefferson, in his meflage of December 18, 1807, 
of " great and increafing dangers with which our velfels 3 
feamen and merchandize were threatened on the high feas 
and elfewhere from the belligerents of Europe," and on 
which he formally recommended his fatal embargo as the 
aecefFary means of preserving « thofe efiential refourcesy \ 



C 9 ] 

^as not warranted by the documents he then laid before 
Congrefs as the evidence of thofe dangers. And the fuble- 
quent confeffions of himfelf and Mr. Madison concerning 
a meafure of one of the belligerents, (the Emperor's Berlin 
decree) exhibited in one of thofe documents, that it really 
prefented no great and increafing dangers, from the inabili- 
ty of France to carry its decree into execution, and which 
they in facT: pronounced " an empty threat*' — demonftrate 
that the original ftatement was in their own view unfounded 
and falfe ; and therefore that it was a premeditated deception. 
And the implicit confidence of a majority of Congrefs in 
Mr. Jefferson, procured a ready adoption of the meafure 
recommended, under the familiar name of embargo— -an in- 
terruption of navigation, according to the common under- 
fianding, of very fhort duration — but which now was ma- 
nifeftly intended by its projector to be of long continuance;, 
and which did in fact, for an unlimited period, "cut 01T our 
commerce with all parts of the world.' 7 This meafure, 
thus founded in deception, fo ruinous to ourfelves, but fo 
acceptable to the French emperor, with the various circum- 
fiances attending it, is to be accounted for on one ground only 
—that it was taken in concert with him, to further his avow- 
ed defign and attempts to defiroy the commerce of Great- 
Britain, by that means to fubdue her, and thus remove the 
only barrier in his march to univerfal empire. — The public 
men capable of praclifing fuch deceptions, are no longer en- 
titled to credit, whatever may be their profeffions of lincere 
defires to preferve the peace of our country, and to fecure 
and promote its welfare. 

6. That under the fame pernicious French influence, the 
natural fympathies of men for opprelTed and fuffering hu- 
manity—for the patriotic Spaniards betrayed into the hard* 
g 



C 10 1 

of the French emperor, but neverthelefs ftrugglmg to reco- 
ver and maintain their independence,— fuch fympathies, if 
felt, were difcountenanced and fuppreffed ; and a multitude 
of American citizens, after the example of their rulers, ex- 
hibited to the world the ftrange fpetfacle of freemen indiffer- 
ent to, or rejoicing at the fucceffes of a tyrant ufurping the 
dominions of an unoffending nation— of an ally which for 
many years, conftrained by its fituation, had aided his arms 
and laid its treafures at his feet ; freemen thus wifhing ta 
add the ftrength of an empire to a Power already vaft and 
gigantic, a power which had fubjugated many of the States 
of Continental Europe, overawed the reft, and endangered 
the liberties and independence of every other nation. 

7. That by thus furthering the views of boundlefs and 
unprincipled ambition in a ruthlefs tyrant, our rulers have 
ihown their pretenfions of fuperior attachment to liberty and 
the rights of man, to be falfe and hollow ; and that their 
often repeated profeffions of exclufive republicanifm, are 
made merely to delude and deceive the people. The falfe- 
nefs of thefe their pretenfions is further proved by their un- 
ceafing enmity and hatred towards England, the only 
country in Europe, the only country in the world, befide our 
own, which enjoys a free government ; a country which for 
ages has been the bulwark of the religion we profefi, and is 
now laboring, more than all other Chriftian countries, to ex- 
tend the knowledge of it and its benign influences to regions 
where its voice has not been heard } a country which has 
hitherto withftood the torrent of defpotifm ifluing fromFrance 
to enflave a world* and whofe powerful navy alone has pre* 
vented that torrent from ruining upon and overwhelming 
she United States. The American citizen muft be void of 



smderftanding, or carelefs of his reputation as a man of fenfe, 
who will publicly queftion the truth of this opinion. 

8. That the preceding truths being fo obvious amd 
clear, — the conftant and glaring partiality of our rulers to- 
wards France, and as conftant and glaring hoftility to G. 
Britain, fo manifeft ; while the bed interefts, the commerce 
and profperity of the United States are the facrifice, and 
their liberty and independence put in jeopardy ; while they 
talk of honour, and crouch at a tyrant's feet, fubmitting to 
the unexampled infults of the Emperor of France, who tells 
them to their faces that they are deftitute of policy, of ener- 
gy and of honour ; while they petulantly complain of inju- 
ries from Great-Britain, and patiently fubmit to injuries 
tenfold greater and of peculiar aggravation from France 5 
while they affect a defire to protect our commerce, yet 
-by their own acts have done more than all foreign na- 
tions to deftroy it ; and at laft have declared war in favour 
of a tyrant againfl; the country with whofe extenfive domi- 
nions in every quarter of the globe a free commerce is now 
more interefting to us than a trade with all the world be- 
£de ; — we are conftrained to exprefs our opinion, that fuch 
conduct is not to be accounted for on any fair and honorable 
principles : we are conftrained to believe, and do believe, 
that while an ardent defire to continue in power, clothed 
with all the honorable and profitable offices in the Union, 
might induce them to ufe the fame means to maintain, 
which were employed to acquire it ; that is, by cultivating 
the known prejudices of the people, which are coeval 
with our revolation, in favour of France — and ftirring up 
and embittering every evil paffion and refentment againft 
England ; while this might partly account for their 
previous meafures adopted at the expenfe of the 



C ?? 1 

folid mterefts of the United States ; yet their Iaft defperattf 
and atrocious act in declaring war againfl: Great-Britain, by 
which an immenfe property of our citizens and thoufands of 
cur feamen now abroad are expofed to capture ; a war by 
which our fiftenes and foreign commerce will be annihilat- 
ed and the value of our agricultural productions thereby 
greatly dirninilhed, and by which even our Coafting Trade 
from State to State and from one port to another in the fame 
State may be defiroyed ; a war by which our ordinary reve- 
nues will be cut off, and the expenies of government and 
war muft therefore be fupported by land and other internal 
taxes ; while complete fuccefs againft Great-Britain ending 
in her fall, would at the fame time feal our own fatal doom 
* — and ill fuccefs and diiafters would reduce thefe States to 
extreme diftrefs inafmuch as all matters in difpute be- 
tween Great-Britain and the United States, prior to the 
orders in council of November 1807, might, in the opinion 
" of Mr. Jefferson's own minifters (Monroe and Pinkney, 
now members of Mr. Madison's adminiftration) have been, 
and were in fact by them adjufted, on terms honorable and 
advantageous to the United States, but which were haftily 
and peremptorily rejected by Mr. Jefferson and inaf- 
much as thofe orders in council would never have been iflu- 
ed, had the United States refifted the Berlin decree in the 
manner which their honor and intereft demanded ; — when 
we confider thefe things, we are compelled to believe, and do 
believe, that the conducl of our rulers, in preferring war to fucb 
an adjuftmeni) is not to he accounted for on the $rdinary princi- 
ples of competition in a party contending for the maintenance of 
its po'wer. 

9. We therefore declare that rulers fo conducting them*. 
Celves, having betrayed the truft which the people placed m 



t 13 ] 



tlieir hands, have forfeited all public confidence ; and that 
every poffible effort, at fucceeding elections, is required, by 
our deareft interefts, by our fafety, liberty and independence, 
to reduce them to private life. 

10. That as the embargoes and commercial reftrictions 
impofed by our rulers, have been calculated deeply to affect 
the effential interefts of Maffachufetts, to deprefs her agricul- 
ture, and to deftroy her fifheries, trade and navigation, depri- 
ved of which her citizens could exift only in poverty and 
diftrefs,-— thofe of her Reprefentatives in Congrefs who fup- 
ported and voted for thofe pernicious meafures, and finally 
for the defperate and atrocious act declaring war, have 
Ihown themfelves to be enemies of the Commonwealth. 

11. That the violation of our commercial rights by our 
own government is the more pointedly to be reprobated., 
feeing that the equal and full protection of commerce in all 
the States was one of the great objects of our federal 
union, the prefervation of which will be hazarded by a 
perfeverance in the meafures which have already fo deeply 
affected our effential interefts, and which, if fubmitted to, 
muft end in their deftruction. 

12. That the taking of Canada, which our rulers have 
held up to view as a direct and principal object of acquifition 
in this war, if it fhould be accomplished, would coft infi- 
nitely more, in blood and treafure, than the whole country 
is worth ; and that if conquered, fome millions of dollars 
aiuft lie annually raifed by taxes, to fupport the army indif- 
penfable to garrifon the forts and maintain the poffeffion. 
But a greater and more dreadful evil would be the confe- 
rence : On the firft demand of France, the fame rulers 
would furrender the country to that power. It was one 
pf the ancient poffeffions of France j and a vaft propor- 



E *4 ] 



6on, perhaps a majority of its population, are Frenchmen.— 
When the French government, Bonaparte then firft conful 
and actual ruler of France, afked and demanded of Spain 
the reftoration of the province of Louifiana, which had been 
ceded to her in 1762, this reafon was affigned— That it had 

once confiituted a part of the French territory Canada 

again in the hands of France, her former plans and practices 
would be refumed. Soon, as before the war of 1756, fte 
would commence her encroachments — foon fhe would re- 
unite Canada to Louifiana — detach the weftern States from 
the Union, and feize the Floridas ; thus encompaffing 
the Atlantic States, and hazarding their future peace and 
Independence — if me forbore an immediate attack. 

13. But another fearful evilrifes to our view. The arbi- 
trary ftrides of our rulers — the tyranny of a majority in the 
National Houfe of Representatives, in infringing and de- 
crying the liberty of fpeech to the faithful members of that 
body — liberty effential to a deliberative affembiy, " and 
formidable to tyrants only" — and without which a free 
government cannot exift — joined to the frequent practice of 
•deciding in fecret on meafures affecting the vital interefls 
of our country— thefe things juftify the fufpicion, that if 
the conqueft of Canada be ferioufiy intended, and it mould 
be effected, — it is to be delivered up to France ; that (he 
snay control the Northern States, from which alone our 
rulers apprehend effectual oppofition to their pernicious and 
tyrannical meafures. Or if the conqueft of Canada be the 
oftenfible, not the real object in railing an army, then the 
only admiiTible inference is, that the army is intended to 
enforce the fame pernicious and tyrannical meafures— by 
overawing the people, reprefling the liberty of fpeech and 



C >5 3 



of the prefs, compelling filent fubmiffion, and finally effect 
ing a complete eftablifhment of tyranny in thefe free States. 

14. That the countenance and encouragement to mobs 
and violence exhibited by perfons and newfpapers devoted 
to our rulers, furnifh a well grounded prefumption, that on 
failure of fufficient numbers in the Handing army now raif- 
ing, mobs are to be the inftruments to enforce the arbitrary 
acts of our government ; which, unlefs counteracted by ge- 
neral aflfociations for mutual fecurity and defence, may prove 
fatal to the lives and liberties of the real friends of their 
country, and introduce all the violences and horrors which 
in revolutionary France deluged that land in blood. 

With earneftnefs we feize this occafion to exprefs our re= 
fpect and veneration for the Chief Magiftrate of this Com- 
monwealth, and our cardial approbation of his conduct in 
refufing to furrender the command of any portion of the 
militia to an officer of the United States who demanded 
them, when none of the exigencies provided for in the con» 
fiitution had occurred. 

15. That the unequalled profligacy of the French go- 
vernment, its defiance and contempt of all the obligations 
of juftice and truth, joined to the prevalent infidelity and 
general proftration of morals in the French nation, prefenc 
France as an object of horror to the civilized and Chriftian 
world. In this view, therefore, we alfo exprefs our detefta- 
tion of the war declared by our rulers again ft Great-Bri- 
tain ; as thereby we become afTociated with France ; and be- 
caufe the war, in its progrefs, will naturally produce an al- 
liance with her that will prove fatal to our religion, liber- 
ties and independence. This voluntary, this chofen con- 
nection with a government and people fo perfidious, profli- 
gate and corrupt, is of itfelf fufflcient to draw down upon 



O'jr country the judgments of Heaven. Thefe we depre- 
cate ; and would avert by all the means which the law? 
and the confutation have placed within our power ; in 
order to effect a fpeedy and utter diffolution of that con- 
section. 

1 6. That in the opinion of this convention, the mag- 
nitude of the evils here brought into view and forcing them- 
felves on our attention^ calls for a more folemn and weighty 
expreflion of the public opinion, by a convention of dele- 
gates from all the counties in this Commonwealth ; and 
that in convenient time thefe delegates mould affemble at 
Bofton, to confult, advife and act on the fureft means of 
reftoring peace and commerce, and of preferving and fecur- 
mg our common interefts, liberties and fafety, now more 
injured, opprefTed and endangered, by the doings of our 
own National Government, than they were when in 1775 
we took arms to protect and defend them againft the mea- 
sures of the government of Great-Britain, 

By order of the Convention. 

TIMOTHY PICKERING, PrefiJenL 

Lonson Nash, Secretary. 



LB D ! ib 



IV 



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